Readly doubles its digital magazine sales in 2017

Readly sells over 5.8m million digital magazine issues in the first half of 2017

As the magazine industry pores over the latest set of ABC figures, with the usual picture of very mixed results, Readly, the digital magazine newsstand, has delivered a dramatic 102% year-on-year rate of growth for the first half of 2017, clearing over 5.8m issues read in the six-month period.

Between January and June 2017, Readly subscribers opened 5,842,589 issues of UK magazine brands. This is more than double the 2.9 million figure seen in the January to June 2016 period.

Ranj Begley, Readly UK’s Managing Director, said: “Our rate of growth accelerated dramatically from the second half of 2016 on. It has been a real achievement to have maintained that momentum into 2017. This is due to two key factors. Firstly, we have been investing in consumer promotions to boost our subscriber numbers. Secondly, we have been stimulating our existing subscribers to read more. Back in 2015, the average Readly reading time was 5 hours per month; this has now risen to 7.5 hours. We are becoming more embedded in our customers’ lives, with 40% of Readly subscribers using the app every day. The average is 4.5 reading sessions per week with each session typically lasting for 22 minutes.”

Readly is the UK’s leading digital newsstand and has pioneered the all-you-can-read subscription with a monthly fee of £7.99 which currently gives consumers access to a range of 713 UK magazine brands from 98 publishers, as well as a growing inventory of international titles.

The market-beating growth of Readly demonstrates that it is in the newsstand environment, where there is a wide range of titles to choose from, that consumers seem much more open to the idea of digital reading. The digital newsstand is the place where magazine readers seem adventurous and experimental, while they tend to be more conservative and habit-driven when consuming in print.

An example of how Readly is expanding its range of magazines has been the recent addition of the highbrow Times Literary Supplement. Begley said: “Readly thrives on having a vibrant and wide-ranging inventory of magazines. The arrival of the TLS adds real depth to our offer. It is a real coup for us to be associated with such a strong international brand from a major publisher like News UK.”